On this week’s episode of Lever Time, news editor Lucy Dean Stockton is joined by researcher Rosanna Landis Weaver and Andrew Behar, CEO of the non-profit shareholder advocacy organization As You Sow , to discuss how they’re using stock ownership in publicly-traded companies to promote corporate change from within. 50 years ago, economist Milton Friedman argued that a corporation’s “greatest responsibility lies in the satisfaction of the shareholders.” In other words, the primary goal of every b...
Nov 21, 2023•41 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, producer Frank Cappello is joined by researcher, software engineer, and cryptocurrency critic Molly White, who helps break down everything you need to know about the trial of former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried. On Nov. 2, a New York federal jury found Bankman-Fried guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the Nov. 2022 collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Bankman-Fried stole as much as $10 billion from its customers and inve...
Nov 16, 2023•26 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) to examine his first year in office as well as President Joe Biden’s poor poll numbers in the state. According to a recent poll , former president Donald Trump leads Biden in five of six swing states, including Pennsylvania. Yet even with Biden’s waning popularity, Josh Shapiro remains one of the most popular Democratic governors in the country right now. With the second most electoral votes among ...
Nov 09, 2023•23 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota sits down with Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) to discuss the House’s Israel-Palestine ceasefire resolution as well as the public pushback from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which has been lambasting the ceasefire resolution as well as some progressive House members. Recent polling shows a majority of Americans support a ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and yet only 18 members of the U.S. House of Representatives offi...
Nov 06, 2023•32 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time , David Sirota is joined by lawyer Caroline Fredrickson, who recently penned an op-ed for The Atlantic titled, “What I Most Regret About My Decades of Legal Activism.” As the former head of the American Constitution Society — the liberal counterweight to the conservative legal network The Federalist Society — Caroline speaks with David about the strengths and weaknesses of liberal legal activism over the last two decades. Caroline’s piece explores the past er...
Nov 02, 2023•34 min
On this week’s bonus episode of Lever Time Premium, The Lever ’s Nick Campbell speaks with music writer Robin James and drummer Greg Saunier from the band Deerhoof to discuss the shifting corporate landscape of the music industry, and the larger dynamics of our economy. The three zero in on a worrisome development: The online music platform Bandcamp was recently sold to the multinational music conglomerate Songtradr, leading to layoffs of 50 percent of Bandcamp’s employees amid union contract ne...
Oct 30, 2023•41 min
On Wednesday, October 18, The Lever ’s David Sirota hosted a live event with Canadian journalist and activist Naomi Klein and Palestinian-American political analyst Omar Baddar to discuss the ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas and the mounting humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. David, Naomi, and Omar spoke about the historical and political context that led to this moment, the double standard being applied by corporate media outlets in their coverage of Israel and Palestine, and recen...
Oct 26, 2023•1 hr 6 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by journalist and Citations Needed podcast co-host Adam H. Johnson to discuss the contradictions and hypocrisies of the multibillion-dollar self-help industry — an industry that has long convinced people that unhappiness is an attitude problem, and not a societal issue that needs to be addressed at a systemic level. Adam’s recent story for The Lever exposed how one of the industry’s leading authors, Arthur Brooks, spent decades advocat...
Oct 19, 2023•43 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy think tank, and Daniel Bessner, an international studies professor at the University of Washington, both of whom served as foreign policy advisors to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, to discuss the deadly conflict unfolding in Israel-Palestine. In today’s media landscape, discourse surrounding war often falls along disparate ideological lines, polluted with instanta...
Oct 12, 2023•1 hr 5 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by Matt Stoller, the director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project, who explains the failures and successes of President Joe Biden’s economic policies, also known as “Bidenomics.” In the past several months, unemployment has dropped and the rate of inflation has begun to slow, while consumer spending and manufacturing is on the rise. In a macro sense, the economy is doing well. But according to a recent NBC poll , 59 ...
Oct 05, 2023•1 hr
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by Brendan James and Noah Kulwin, producers and hosts of the wildly popular historical narrative podcast Blowback . Their new season covers the history of foreign intervention in Afghanistan and both the intentional and unintentional blowback from those efforts. “Blowback” refers to an old CIA term meaning, “the unforeseen and unwanted effects, or repercussions to one’s actions.” In Blowback , Brendan and Noah report on the history of ...
Sep 28, 2023•45 min
On this week’s Lever Time, David Sirota and journalist Laura Krantz are joined by Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb to discuss his research into extraterrestrial life. In 2017, a Maui telescope discovered an interstellar object that astronomers named Oumuamua (Hawaiian for “scout” or “messenger”) that had an elongated shape and an unusual acceleration not explained by gravity alone. That’s when Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb suggested a controversial hypothesis: The object might be an extraterres...
Sep 21, 2023•49 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota and Peter Goodman, The New York Times ’ global economics correspondent, explore the pivotal role of Indonesia’s vast nickel reserve in the global electric vehicle (EV) revolution and the high-stakes geopolitical chess game the mineral has ignited. The strategic tug-of-war between the U.S. and China over nickel — a crucial component for electric vehicle batteries — has implications for global trade dynamics and international alliances. If China d...
Sep 14, 2023•41 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota talks with author Richard Reeves about the growing evidence that men are struggling in modern America. In his latest book, Reeves delves into recent economic and social shifts that have negatively impacted men's lives. They discuss empirical data showing that men are falling behind in both college attendance and graduation rates, and how they are three times more likely than women to perish from “deaths of despair” related to suicide, alcohol, o...
Sep 07, 2023•57 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time , producer Frank Cappello speaks with Labor Notes staff writer Luis Feliz Leon about why a potential autoworkers strike could be transformational for younger union members struggling under depressed wages and limited benefits. Luis has been reporting on the ground about the ongoing contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers union and the “Big Three” automakers — Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis (formerly known as Chrysler). Last Friday, 150,000...
Aug 31, 2023•39 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, Lever news editor Lucy Dean Stockton speaks with former Hawaii state representative and national director of the Green New Deal Network Kaniela Ing about the recent wildfires in Maui. On August 8th, a wildfire swept through the historic city of Lahaina, reducing almost every building to ash and killing more than 100 people. Scores of Lahaina residents have lost their homes, and more than 800 people are still missing as emergency responders address the crisis...
Aug 24, 2023•40 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, Julia Rock and Frank Cappello speak with environmental lawyer Julia Olson to discuss a recent historic win for young climate activists who she represents in Montana. This past Monday, a judge in Montana ruled that young people are entitled to a “clean and healthful” environment. The case, known as Held v. Montana , included 16 plaintiffs ages 5 to 22, who testified that the state government’s pro-fossil fuel policies were unconstitutional. Held v. Montana wa...
Aug 17, 2023•32 min
On this week’s Lever Time, Audit hosts and friends of the show Josh Olson and Dave Anthony are joined by journalist and media expert John Knefel to discuss how the conservative propaganda operation PragerU landed a major new partnership with Florida’s public schools. PragerU produces short-form video content on politics, social issues, and history. The media organization’s stated goal is to “promote American values through the creative use of educational videos” and “[offer] a free alternative t...
Aug 10, 2023•56 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time , David Sirota is joined by Jeff Goodell, author of the new book The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet , to discuss recent deadly heat waves and how they’re a prelude to dangers to come. This past July was the hottest single month in recorded history. In the United States, temperatures rose above 120 degrees in several regions of the country, and ocean temperatures in parts of Florida reached 101 degrees, potentially shattering the...
Aug 03, 2023•54 min
On today’s Lever Time , David Sirota sits down with law professor and policy advocate Robert Hockett and former FDIC attorney Todd Phillips, to explain “The Great Bank Robbery of 2023” — a financial grift that very well could be impacting you. The three explore how this complicated bank swindle has become so prevalent, what federal regulators could do to stop it, and how consumers like you can protect yourself from the scam. The grift goes like this: When you deposit your money at a bank, they s...
Jul 27, 2023•46 min
On this week’s Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by The Bear writer and Writers Guild of America (WGA) union member Alex O’Keefe to discuss the stakes of the current Hollywood strike. The WGA has been on strike since early May after failing to secure a contract with the country’s major film and television producers. This past week, SAG-AFTRA, the union representing film and TV actors, joined the strike after failing to secure their own contract, putting Hollywood on standstill for the first tim...
Jul 20, 2023•1 hr 7 min
Today, we’re sharing an episode of the podcast Deconstructed from our friends over at The Intercept , an award-winning investigative news organization. Centrist and right-wing economists continue to advocate for laying off workers and engineering a recession to address inflation. But why not set price controls instead? This week on Deconstructed , host Ryan Grim is joined by James K. Galbraith, a professor of government and business relations at the University of Texas at Austin. Galbraith has a...
Jul 18, 2023•48 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota is joined by law professor Stephen Vladeck, author of the new book, The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic . The Supreme Court has received a lot of attention in the last several years for its extreme rulings on matters such as abortion rights, environmental regulations, and affirmative action. But there’s another very important court procedure that doesn’t receive nearly as much a...
Jul 13, 2023•49 min
Today, we’re sharing an episode of the podcast Deconstructed from our friends over at The Intercept , an award-winning investigative news organization. In this episode, Daniel Boguslaw, a politics reporter for The Intercept , interviews Senator Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) former political advisor Scott Sears. Boguslaw tells the story of Manchin’s rise in West Virginia politics, his strategic alliance with powerful business interests, and explains how the Senator ended up with such power over the Dem...
Jul 06, 2023•38 min
On this week’s episode of Lever Time, David Sirota and Andrew Perez are joined by ProPublica ’s Justin Elliott , who recently co-authored an exposédetailing how Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito failed to disclose luxury gifts provided by billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer. This story follows ProPublica ’s reporting from earlier this year about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who also failed to disclose gifts he received from his own billionaire benefactor, Harlan Crow. David, An...
Jun 29, 2023•44 min
Today, we’re sharing an episode of the podcast Deconstructed with Ryan Grim, D.C. bureau chief of The Intercept , an award-winning investigative news organization. In this episode, Grim, speaks with communications consultant Anat Shenker-Osorio, host of the podcast Words to Win, and whose company ASO Communications works with progressive think tanks like the Voting Rights Lab. Grim and Shenker-Osorio discuss why progressive messages often succeed while moderate messages typically fail, and how s...
Jun 27, 2023•59 min
As the Writers Guild of America strike enters its eighth week, David Sirota sits down with writer, director, musician, and activist Boots Riley to discuss the ongoing labor struggle, as well as his radical new TV show. In all of Boots’ work runs a deep commitment to social justice and organized labor. In 2018, Boots released the celebrated film Sorry to Bother You , an absurdist dark comedy about race and class politics set in the world of telemarketing. Now, Boots speaks with David about his fa...
Jun 22, 2023•58 min
David sits down with prominent investigative journalist Leslie Kean , who earlier this month published a blockbuster report about a potential secret government UFO effort. According to Kean and her co-author, a former U.S. intelligence official-turned-whistleblower recently gave Congress classified information about covert programs that he says possess intact and partially intact aircraft of non-human origin. Kean has become known for her diligent reporting on UFOs (they’re now officially called...
Jun 15, 2023•55 min
The country may have narrowly avoided a debt default catastrophe by passing a debt ceiling deal on June 3, but that doesn’t mean we should allow the fiasco to fall into the memory hole. David Dayen , executive editor of The American Prospect , joins host David Sirota to dissect the event, discuss the political misuse of the debt limit, and explore what was traded away in this crisis. While the Biden administration is literally advertising the deal as a bipartisan triumph , the two scrutinize its...
Jun 08, 2023•56 min
David Sirota sits down with U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) for a wide-ranging interview. They discuss the proposed debt ceiling deal and whether Democrats could have done more to stop Republicans from holding the U.S. economy hostage. They also discuss Murphy’s key legislative focus: social media’s harmful effects on Americans, particularly children, and what can be done to stop it. According to a survey by Common Sense Media, teenagers report spending nearly nine hours every day in front o...
May 31, 2023•51 min
